Guitar_Player__January_2018

FEATURES
>>> MICHAEL SWEET & GEORGE LYNCH
instead of the opposite. There’s enough
of that already.
What gear was critical to recording
your parts for Unified?
Lynch: The last few years, I’ve kept it
pretty simple. I’ll just use two different guitars
for two rhythm tracks. Usually, one of
the guitars will be an ESP—a Kamikaze or
a Tiger. For the second track, depending on
the part, I might use a Les Paul, a Strat, or
a Tele. I’ll also change amps sometimes, or
the microphone, or the mic preamp. The
trick is to find something complementary.
You have to really listen, though. Sometimes,
two awesome sounds can cancel
each other out. So I might throw down a
really crappy distorted tone, and, for some
reason, it makes the blend sound just
wonderful. The crummy tone adds some
glue to whatever frequencies are missing
in the first guitar. An engineer taught me
that back in the ’90s, and it’s something I
do to this day.
I’m an amp freak, so I built shelves in
the studio from floor to ceiling that are full
of amps. For this record, I used my preferred
“default” head—my stock ’68 Marshall
100-watt plexi. I have to put something
in front of it to push it where it needs to
go, but it doesn’t matter too much if it’s
an old BOSS 10-band EQ, a Tube Screamer,
or something else. Then, I have a ’68 Marshall
JMP 50 that I love. Those are the two
big ones for me, but I also started using
this amp called a Metz. I have an 18-watt
version with EL84s, and a quad EL34 version
that’s 35 watts or so. Another interesting
amp was the RedPlate BlackLine.
The bottom line for me is if I plug in and I
can’t stop playing, then I’ve got to have it. I
like to be inspired by an amp. For cabinets,
I’ve got some old Oranges and Marshalls,
and I use various combinations of them.
Sweet: I had my signature Washburns
in the studio, as well as some PRS Miras
from when I was playing with Boston. I
love the tone of those—they’re kind of like
a Les Paul Jr. For amps, I wound up using
my Mesa/Boogie Mark V head through a
2x12 cab, and I also used my signature ISP
MS Theta Pro. It just sounds killer. They
added an extra EQ circuit for me to get
more of my own signature EQ. I use a lot
of EQ, man. I use pre-EQ and I use post-
EQ, and, sometimes, multiple pre and multiple
post. It’s just the way I get my tone. I
knock it out on the front end, change the
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